Names
by Soshite
Summary: AU Kitaniji-centric? 'Her name was Shizune Buyataka. But no one knew that, save for Kitaniji, and even he never referred to her actual name in her presence.'
1. 1281, Kyushuu

**Title:** Names

**Author:** Soshite

**Summary:** AU Kitaniji-centric? 'Her name was Shizune Buyataka. But no one knew that, save for Kitaniji, and even he never referred to her actual name in her presence.'

**Rated:** T

**Disclaimer:** I do not own The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai, its storyline or its characters. They belong to Square-Enix.

**Beta:** Un-betaed. Anyone wanna be my beta reader?

**Warning:** OOC characterizations, OC-bordering-on-Mary-Sue, pseudo Japanese history and lots of spoilers.

**NAMES**

1281, Kyushuu

"Mitsukuni-kun!"

Her name was **Shi**zune **Buya**taka.

"How does the Game fare?"

But no one knew that, save for Kitaniji, and even he never referred to her actual name in her presence.

"Are the Players behaving themselves, Mitsukuni-kun?"

She was their leader, their ruling queen, their mikado...she was their _goddess_.

His Megumi.

"Megumi-sama...should you be out and about like this, my lady?" he asked, kneeling next to her as she watched the somewhat living dead battle with monsters that came from the hearts of humans themselves. A smile came to her lips as she tapped her delicate paper fan against her chin pensively. She then turned her gaze downward at the kneeling lord next to her, chuckling slightly. Kitaniji kept his gaze lowered.

"You didn't answer my question, Mitsukuni-kun," she stated, more amused than irritated. Lady Megumi somehow always seemed to be in good spirits as long as he had known her, which would be for all of three years. He could remember how she had reached out to him and chosen him out of all those who had warranted a second chance at their lost lives.

Like a shining proxy of Amaterasu on Earth, she descended towards him from her veiled throne to the court and pulled him to stand and asked him to be her Minister. Struck by her etherealness and utter grace in a land of certain abnormality and a sense of something beyond him, he had agreed readily. Kitaniji had once been a _saburau_, or _saburai_ as people were starting to call them, and the ability to serve once again was strong in him. There was a sense of normality in being able to do the duties he had once been able to do as a living man. Even if he had to stoop to serving a woman, he was sure that this particular female was more than capable of smiting him like an enraged goddess should.

The surge of power he had received in accepting was something he had been ready for, being able to feel the flow of his beloved homeland almost welcoming. It made his senses tingle as his eyes adjusted themselves to the brighter colors all around him and the sound of sweet music of which he had never heard before that almost drove him to tears with the beauty of it all. He had been ready to take on the great responsibility of taking on the role of Minister in the land of the dead, so as long as he could stay by his Lady Megumi's side. Yes, he had been ready for all that and more.

What he hadn't been ready for was the Lady Megumi's tendency towards whimsy.

"They are...faring well enough, my lady," he replied, to which she hummed a non-commital sound. The smile disappeared, but that did not mean that Megumi wasn't enjoying herself. It simply meant that she was thinking and when she was thinking, Kitaniji usually had this incredible urge to run away in the opposite direction, resulting in a lack of honor, which would probably result in ritualistic suicide, had he not been dead already.

"There will be more soon," she said, at length, surveying the field the Players were currently trying to create wind, as it was their latest assignment in the game to create a 'breeze that could sink ships'. Megumi had said she had made the Players do something similar seven years, except that she had made them create 'light that could strike down the enemies of our homeland'. In the exact same spot Kyushuu, no less. Kitaniji wouldn't question her, though. Even as whimsical as Megumi was, she often knew what she was doing. "I really hate it when men fight, but at least we can settle things more quickly this way."

Kitaniji had no idea what she was talking about, but Megumi was Megumi and the lady Mikado always knew what was best for Japan and he would follow her to the ends of eternity, for what it was worth. She loved their homeland with all of her heart, wishing to make it a better place through whatever means possible—through the use of her Court Game or otherwise. She cared enough for the dead, giving them chance after chance to rectify themselves and purify their souls before releasing them back onto the living plane or sending them to be reincarnated for the next life as was their reward for working so hard. Megumi had a large responsibility to their homeland, taking care of it as a mother watching over her household...

"Mitsukuni-kun?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, Megumi-sama?" he replied, expectantly. Was there something she needed him to do? His hand adjusted his belt a little, feeling the blade he kept there slipping a little.

"Come with me," she beckoned, smiling that pleasant smile she often made before coming up to mischief. "The _shogun_ will take care of things here. I would like to get a new kimono made from the shop in my home village. I heard they had a new shipment of fine silk and this one is so out of style...I think I would like something...new."

Kitaniji had to keep his face from falling. Surely the lady had better things to have him do, than to accompany her as she made purchases, but when had he ever been capable of saying no to Megumi? Old as she was (her clothes, he noted, were something he would only see hanging on the walls of the homes of very old noble families), the lady Mikado acted like she was very much still a child—no, a young maiden, still innocent before marriage would make her quiet and bitter. But, as far as he could tell, Megumi would never be bitter, even if she were old, married, saddled with several children and left alone to tend to the house with her husband off to war. She'd probably be _cheerful_ about it.

He accompanied her to the carriage that would take them to her old hometown (she had once been human, too, he mused), sitting across from her as monstrous looking demon horses pulled them along and into the sky, although no one would see them. The ride would be short, but the lady Mikado would try for conversation anyways and what she had said would leave an impact on him forever.

"Do you know what I dream of, Mitsukuni-kun? I dream of a diverse Japan."


	2. 1586

**Title:** Names

**Author:** Soshite

**Summary:** AU Kitaniji-centric? 'Her name was Shizune Buyataka. But no one knew that, save for Kitaniji, and even he never referred to her actual name in her presence.'

**Rated:** T

**Disclaimer:** I do not own The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai, its storyline or its characters. They belong to Square-Enix.

**Beta:** Un-betaed. Anyone wanna be my beta reader?

**Warning:** OOC characterizations, OC-bordering-on-Mary-Sue, pseudo Japanese history and lots of spoilers.

**NAMES**

1586

Megumi's court were made up of ten men, not including Kitaniji and Megumi herself. They were all assigned to parts of Japan and oversaw the dead in those places as Megumi, as strong as she was, was not capable of keeping an eye over all the areas herself and neither could Kitaniji, who had long become accustomed to his role as the Minister of Meifuu. The faces of these highly ranked men usually never stayed the same though; humans were often susceptible to jealousy, greed and power, so it was that there was still much intrigue and backstabbing in a place where such things should be left behind. Some, of course, left their posts of their own free will, choosing to ascend or be reincarnated, but those were few and far in between the squabbling and fighting often going on in the Mikado's court, built within the Palace of Paradise.

Finally, Megumi had had enough.

There would be a change, effective immediately, she had told everyone. If they were going to fight each other, she would have to rectify this and force them all to stay in their own territories like the warring feudal lords they were trying to be in _her_ court. In this place in time, there was no room for argument, petty fights and willfulness, only decision and if they couldn't keep their heads down, she was going to bloody do it _for_ them.

Megumi had never been angry before. Not in all the years anyone had known her as the Mikado of the dead. But the resentment, anger and hate within the court—in all of Japan itself, because it was now in the middle of a civil war—was breaking her heart. She had had enough.

So, she granted everyone great power, for it was in her own right to do so, if she pleased. Each of her generals would be allotted his own territory to rule over, to assign ranks, missions and rules as they pleased. No one from the other territories will be able to pass their borders; they would not be allowed to leave their own borders. They would be Mikado, too, but at the price of their freedom.

There was no room for argument. Everyone had been too shocked to do much arguing anyways. It had come right out of the blue, this decision to split up the underworld like this. But, with no complaint for even with their newfound power the Lady Megumi was more than a match for them, they accepted their fates with humility.

Japan was divided up, the generals sent on their way, each given a small portion of Megumi's private army to do with as they pleased to help out with their own Court Games as she was sure that they would develope their own, in time. Smiling, after everything she had cruelly done, she told them 'I wish to see a diverse Japan.'

This was long coming, she had told Kitaniji, who still remained by her side as Minister—Minister of what, exactly as, with the sudden appearance of ten new Mikado, Megumi's existence wasn't mandatory anymore and neither was Kitaniji's, to tell the truth. The work had been divided up rather evenly, because of this, leaving behind nothing for these two beings to do, except, keep on eye on the new Mikado themselves.

But, of course, he should have known better than to think that this incident had been an act of whimsy—a dangerous whimsy prone to anger.

There had been one spot, left untouched by the other territories and where Megumi's own court would be relocated and where everything would still affect the other ten. Megumi was still Mikado, she told him. The Mikado of all of Meifuu—even when she was long gone, she would still be known as the Mikado of Japan. She would be the last, since, in keeping her generals busy with keepign up their territories without her influence, her place as _the_ Mikado was secure.

She had apologized to Kitaniji, saying that his position would be smaller than before and confined to one spot whereas he had been anywhere and everywhere as he wanted, but this had been the only course of action she could think of before an all-out war in Meifuu started. And her heart was already breaking as it was for feuding Japan, slowly hurting and killing itself with the hate and prejudice within its own borders. It was a sad, lonely song that Kitaniji heard and he could only close his and murmur that it was his honor to serve her, straight into the bitter end.

Megumi had stared at him then, the new court slowly being assembled around them underground, bit by bit by her own power—the will of her Imagination. It would not be as glorious as her original palace court out in the open air with a beautiful blue sky above, but it would be their home anyways. They would make it their home, if Kitaniji had anything to say about it.

They had long been at this game together, been working together to make Japan a better place; the homeland they both loved so much. She had nothing to be sorry about. If this was how things were meant to be, then it was how things were meant to be.

She cried that day. It was the most terrifying and most beautiful thing he had seen. Far more beatiful than Edo at sunrise; so much more terrifying than facing the blade of an enemy and feeling his life slowly slip away from him as he laid dying in a field. Megumi had always outshone the sun, the symbol of the goddess, Amaterasu. Her soul was brighter than anything he had seen. And that soul wept as its owner did, crying for one reason or another.

Megumi called him an idiot. That was the only time anyone had ever call him that.

Well, he would tell her, decidedly playful for once, if he was an iodiot, than her lady Mikado was an even bigger idiot for picking him to be her Minister.

That stopped her for all of three seconds.

"Mitsukuni-kun...you idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Each time she said 'idiot' she would hit him once in the arm. It didn't hurt; she was surprisingly weak physically for someone who could smite him in a heartbeat, if she so choosed. But Megumi's heart was as big as the land she loved dearly, even if it was close to cracking and breaking into little pieces. And he loved her for it...maybe just a bit more than he loved Japan.

"It's Shizune. _Shi_-_zu_-_ne_!" She tried kicking him, but he simply sidestepped her. In al the years of being in her service, this was the most personal they had ever gotten. It was true that as Minister and Mikado that the two of them would be inseparable to a point, but they had never been more than master and servant. They were cordial, pleasant and civil with one another—or so he had thought. Megumi was never reserved. She had grace, poise and beauty, but she would never be like the women of his time who were submissive, quiet and obedient. She openly expressed herself to him, allowed him to see her as she truly was.

Maybe he really was an idiot. But he was hers for the rest of eternity. Or some semblance of it.

"_Megumi_," he intoned. He kneeled in front of her, taking her pale hand and bent his head over it. "My Megumi-sama. May your reign continue to be fair and just and may I continue to serve you, always, as your trusted Minister in your diverse Japan."

And she cried again, but it was more beautiful than it was terrifying.

It rained outside the 'Palace of Paradise' and Japan was soon to see a new beginning.

"Come on, Megumi-sama. Lets go find you a new kimono."


	3. November 11, 1855, Edo

**Title:** Names

**Author:** Soshite

**Summary:** AU Kitaniji-centric? 'Her name was Shizune Buyataka. But no one knew that, save for Kitaniji, and even he never referred to her actual name in her presence.'

**Rated:** T

**Disclaimer:** I do not own The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai, its storyline or its characters. They belong to Square-Enix.

**Beta:** Un-betaed. Anyone wanna be my beta reader?

**Warning:** OOC characterizations, OC-bordering-on-Mary-Sue, pseudo Japanese history and lots of spoilers.

**NAMES**

November 11, 1855, Edo

His smile was too coy. Much too coy for his tastes, but Megumi liked him, so he wouldn't say anything just yet.

Perhaps , Kitaniji thought, he was being overprotective of the Mikado due to his old samurai senses randomly kicking in whenever he saw a strange person get near his beloved Mikado, sensing a threat where there was none to be had. The boy seemed to genuinely like Megumi, too. Of course, that did not make the feeling of impending doom go away either. This boy would be trouble, that was for certain and trouble was the last thing that their court needed once again. Not since the separation of Megumi's generals.

"Yoshiya!" There was the sound of running feet and two bodies colliding as Kitaniji was tallying up the amount of Souls lost that day due to the assignment sent by the new Game Master. A Game Master was something Megumi had recently implemented in the last few months, to give the Game a new pace. It had been working out so far, but it, of course, meant that both Kitaniji and his lady were further distancing themselves from overseeing the Game. It was still being played by her rules, since Meifuu overall was defined by her as she saw it and he still had control over the soldiers, but as the years went by and Japan slowly started changing, bit by bit...Megumi started changing, too.

It was probably why he allowed her whimsy to take a turn for the...maternal.

"Please, Mother. Father calls me 'Joshua'. I expect the same of you, of course," the pale boy said to Megumi, who had all, but glued herself to the young soldier's side.

"Of course," she agreed, ruffling his equally as pale hair. "Father does call you that, doesn't he? How silly of me." Kitaniji scowled over his abacus, practically ready to wretch at the sickeningly sweet display before him. The two of them had been at it since they had first met a few years ago, when the boy, Yoshia Kiryuu, had been the sole survivor of Megumi's game (and what a game _that_ one had been—nearly colapsed the entire village with it) and was taken under the woman's wing in a way Kitaniji had never been when he had accepted to become her Minister.

Not that he _wanted_ to be babied by an overly affectionate Megumi. No, not at all.

And there was the subject of this 'Father' the two of them seemed to be talking about. Couldn't be imaginary, since he doubted Megumi had gotten that senile just yet (or maybe she _had_ been to begin with and he never noticed) and he doubted Yoshiya was that in to the whole 'happy family' scenario cooked up by Megumi. But there was no evidence to the contrary. Whoever it was though, only the boy and Megumi seemed to know who it was, since it wasn't Kitaniji who had the joy of being the boy's Father.

Not that he was jealous of another, supposedly existant, man, damn it.

"The tally, Mikado-sama," Kitaniji interrupted before things got too far.

"Oh? I'm sorry, Kitaniji-san. I almost forgot why I came here," Megumi said, making Kitaniji frown. Ever since the boy came into the picture she had stopped calling him 'Mitsukuni-kun' as she was wont to do, back in the day. She respectfully referred to him by his surname and treated him cordially with more space in between them. No longer did she cling onto his arm, pull him along on her random shopping sprees in the village market or whatever else that decided to catch her fancy. She did that with her beloved 'Joshua' now. Not that he was jealous of a _boy_, of all things. He had been by the Mikado's side for many a decade , serving her faithfully without fail and he wasn't going to suddenly get insecure because of a sickly looking _little boy_.

Albeit, he was closer in age physically to Megumi, whereas Kitaniji had died in his early thirties—a soldier defending his homeland from invaders. When one was dead one did not age a single day, but it had never bothered him overly much—until this boy came into the picture. Megumi looked young enough to be his sister, never mind _mother_.

Megumi looked over the tally, eyebrows shooting to her hairline as she took in the figures and not quite believing what she was seeing. Kitaniji hadn't really paid much attention to his results, excluding putting the result together, so he wasn't quite ready for the unlady-like shout coming from the Mikado's lips.

"Holy mother of Susa-no-O-no-Mikoto! Yoshiya! Over half the Players have been taken down within the first day!" She sounded more horrified, than impressed. Same old Megumi. No matter how bad things got in their homeland, the plains tarnished by the appearance of the western devils, her heart was still the same underneath it all. She wanted to give everyone a chance—any chance. But things weren't the same and she couldn't be as free as she wanted to be with her wishes. The souls of Players had to be more refined, brighter, stronger...before she could even think of sending them back. There were too many people now and sending people back from the dead would only compound the problem.

"You seem surprised, Mother," Yoshiya said, smiling ever so slightly. There was no actual malice that Kitaniji could find, but there was an underlying amusement that he heard there. It flickered in the boy's soul. "You did tell me to do my best, didn't you?" The child made a disappointed face at the older woman who, despite how old she truly was and everything in herself that was telling her not to give in to maternal instinct, just smiled sadly and shook her head.

"Oh, well...I suppose I am. It's just such a high number...I don't think we've ever had this many Players gone, have we, Kitaniji-san?" She pulled him into the conversation with just a simple call of his name and he knew he was obliged to answer her. When he didn't answer right away she just chuckled softly. "Well, this certainly is a cause for...celebration..." She considered something then, looking at the two men within the chamber. She smiled brightly at the both of them.

"You know...it should be snowing soon...perhaps we could catch a glimpse of it? I haven't seen snow in such a long time," she stated thoughtfully. "And today...seems like a perfect day, no? So why don't we go outside for a little while?"

And she left him behind, again. But he was not jealous. He would not rise, especially to the boy on Megumi's arm who looked over his shoulder and looked just too smug about _something_. Out the door they went together, with him watching and going back to his calculations. He didn't like that boy, but he made Megumi happy—no, he did good work. He did good work. That was a mantra he had to repeat to himself. If he kept thinking about Megumi he would go mad.

No, he wasn't jealous. Not at all. He was worried. Megumi was unstable—their homeland was unstable. That was what he had to think about—had to remind himself that was what it was all about. Megumi was his Mikado and, of course, he would get overprotective as was normal for a subordinate such as himself, but he had to remember his higher calling. He was doing it for his homeland that he loved so much. Although, not as much as he loved Megumi whose presence had been a constant for Kami only knew how many years...

"Mitsukuni!"

Kitaniji was disturbed from his musings by suddenly having an armful of Megumi in his arms, the ink he had been using spilled over onto his pristine paper he was going to write a report on. Dumbstruck, he could only look down at the woman holding onto him.

"...Mikad—"

"_Shizune_."

He looked down at her.

"I told you before...it's Shizune. So don't forget, please? I haven't forgotten you, so don't forget."

It had been so odd for her. She had left Joshua outside a moment, let him go on by himself for her to catch up to later so she could return to Kitaniji and...well, see him. He should have seen something bad coming from this, but he hadn't. He just simply held her awkwardly with one arm, staring down at the top of Megumi's head.

"Don't forget."

She touched his temple and he felt something cool enter his mind, forming something—a thought. It was her name. Her human name; imprinted into his mind forever.

**Shi**zune **Buya**taka.

Don't forget. He had no idea what had brought this on, but he promised her that he wouldn't forget as long as he existed. She seemed satisfied with this and smiled brightly up at him, though she looked positively close to crying.

"My lady honors me with her name," he said softly. "But please...do not stay on account of myself. Go see your snow," he urged. She nodded, giving him a watery smile.

"Alright. Yoshiya should be waiting for me. Lets go to the village soon, Mitsukuni-kun. I need a new kimono." And she left again, with a silent promise to return.

She never did.

That evening, an earthquake struck Edo, killing thousands and destroying just as many houses. There was a great despair in the air as people laid injured or dying; homes and livelihoods wrecked beyond repair where the earth had violently shaken everything up. The land was a cacaphony of cries and screams, all centering in on one village.

Kitaniji felt it in the air before he himself realized it as he beheld the Room of Reckoning, the room used by the Mikado, within the Palace of Paradise, changed form. What was once bright with colors that attacked the senses as Kitaniji had known it, with all of Megumi's old kimono's hung up as decorations on the walls (she owned about 250 different ones) was now dark...bleak. The Room of Reckoning was once built in the same style of yore...the style Megumi had cherished, because it reminded her of home. It was gone. All gone. It was now just a dark room and a western style chair, large and imposing with strange markings all over. Those markings were the only color in the spacious chamber, giving the Minister a sense of foreboding. They glowed a bright red; like blood. A surge of power had drawn him in here as he was doing more calculations in his own chambers, before the quake suddenly started shaking everything.

Yoshiya stood there, alone, staring at his hands. Hands that glowed—a whole body that glowed. A body that shone as bright as Amaterasu...

The boy turned around, horrified, as to what had transpired. To what the two of them had witnessed.

"Why did she do it?" the boy asked, light coming off of him the way it used to on Megumi. "Why did she do it, Kitaniji?"

Kitaniji closed his eyes, held the grief that was threatening to tear him apart. He could feel her—feel her off of this boy—in this room—in the village as well. She was all around, but nowhere at all. She caressed him without touching him...without being there.

_...Mitsukuni-kun..._

She could still whisper his name to him through the air...

Kitaniji touched the chair, stroking the sleek, dark wood. It held power, too, and it licked at his very skin, teasing him with the presence behind it in all of its familiarity.

"Because she loves her homeland more than herself."


End file.
